The term "civility" is all the rage today in the beltway media since Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant because Trump's press secretary promotes the incredible dishonesty that comes from the Trump administration.
This wasn't an off the cuff act of aggression against Sanders that came from owner Stephanie Wilkinson or her staff but something they took some time with before Wilkinson asked for a private word with SHS.
“I said, ‘I’m the owner,’ ” she recalled, ” ‘I’d like you to come out to the patio with me for a word.’ ”They stepped outside, into another small enclosure, but at least out of the crowded restaurant.“I was babbling a little, but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion,” Wilkinson said. “I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation.“I said, ‘I’d like to ask you to leave.’ ”
No presidential administration has lied to the American people on an hourly basis like Trump, and his surrogates have since Bush's minions push to start a war in Iraq.
One can only imagine what Trump's response to such a tragedy would be. Martial law?
But Trump's entire strategy is twofold. Turn our entire federal government into a bombastic reality show by creating phony crises and then using false facts to defend himself.
And secondly, attack everyone and anything that he deems are not loyal enough.
Trump's continuous and voluminous amount of lies come like a tidal wave from his own lips and through his social media accounts.
Then they are amplified by his press secretary and TV surrogates. When they get caught in their lies, refuse to answer basic questions from the press about their own actions.
Sanders told the press that Trump didn't write his son's statement to the media after it was revealed Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and the indicted Paul Manafort went to a meeting in Trump Tower with Russians for dirt on Hillary that told the American people it was about Russian adoptions.
When asked about her actions she continually refused to give any credible answer and gaslit everyone on the topic.
She was allowed to promote a lie to protect Trump's son and his campaign over working with a foreign country to undermine a presidential election, but not allowed to explain her actions.
Here she is with Chris Cuomo making a specious argument why she can't tell us why she lied:
"This is a legal matter, and the appropriate individuals to answer questions on a legal matter is the outside counsel, and I'd direct you to them," said Sanders. "I don't understand having to answer the same question over and over again."
"In all due respect, it's because you haven't answered it," Cuomo responded.
"That's not true," Sanders shot back. "I've answered it. You just didn't like the answer. There's a big difference between me not answering it and you not liking the answer."
These lies are ripping this country into pieces.
When a presidential administration uses white nationalistic immigration policies, says some neo-Nazis are good people, targets gays in the military, supports alleged pedophiles for Congress, tries to destroy the US health care system, supports murderous dictators over our most trusted overseas allies, adds trillions of dollars to the federal deficit to give millionaires and billions tax cuts, it has an effect. These are just a few examples of Trump uncivil policies of governance. I could fill up an almanac of his despicable tweets alone.
And after Trump separated and caged young migrant child while his surrogates gaslit everyone, another opposite reaction was bound to occur. A visceral one.
Here's HBO's John Oilver:
Oliver, "If a realtor selling a house, was to say why are we talking about the children in cages the kitchen has marble countertops. The only acceptable response would be because they are children and they are in cages. someone needs to let them out, you f***ing monster!"
Which has now led to poor Sarah Huckabee Sanders being asked to leave a restaurant and the press is reacting as if she's the only aggrieved person in the country?
The Post editorial also gaslights the murderous anti-abortion religious right industry.
We nonetheless would argue that Ms. Huckabee, and Ms. Nielsen and Mr. Miller, too, should be allowed to eat dinner in peace. Those who are insisting that we are in a special moment justifying incivility should think for a moment how many Americans might find their own special moment. How hard is it to imagine, for example, people who strongly believe that abortion is murder deciding that judges or other officials who protect abortion rights should not be able to live peaceably with their families?
Doctor Tiller was murdered as soon as Obama was elected president and they've almost wiped out womens' rights to reproductive health. Yes, I said health.
From 2015, The NY Times, "A Brief History of Deadly Attacks on Abortion Providers"
The fatal shooting of three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs on Friday was the latest incident in a long history of violent attacks on facilities or doctors providing abortions in the United States and Canada.
But hey, don't mess with a person's meal, am I right?
UPDATE: I tweeted this over the weekend.
It's fine for Trump and his people to celebrate the refusal of service to others, gotcha.
